Microsoft's largest layoff in years hits Xbox, sales and other divisions

Microsoft says it is laying off about 9,000 workers, its second mass layoff in months and its largest in more than two years.

The tech giant began sending out layoff notices Wednesday that hit the company's Xbox video game business and other divisions.

Among those losing their jobs are 830 workers tied to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, according to a notice sent to state officials Wednesday.

Microsoft said the cuts will affect multiple teams around the world, including its sales division, part of “organizational changes" needed to succeed in a "dynamic marketplace.” The company won’t say the total number of layoffs except that it was about 4% of the workforce it had a year ago.

A memo to gaming division employees Wednesday from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer said the cuts would position the video game business “for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas.”

Xbox would “follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” Spencer wrote.

Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of June 2024, the last time it reported its annual headcount. Its latest layoffs would cut fewer than 4% of that workforce, according to Microsoft. But it has already had at least three layoffs this year and it's unlikely that new hiring has matched the amount lost. Either way, a 4% cut would amount to somewhere in the range of 9,000 people.

Until now, this year's biggest layoff was in May, when Microsoft began laying off about 6,000 workers, nearly 3% of its global workforce and its largest job cuts in more than two years.

The cutbacks come as Microsoft continues to invest huge amounts of money in the data centers, specialized computer chips and other infrastructure needed to advance its AI ambitions. The company anticipated those expenses would cost it about $80 billion in the last fiscal year. Its new fiscal year began Tuesday.

Microsoft just last month cut another 300 workers based out of its Redmond headquarters, on top of nearly 2,000 who lost their jobs in the Puget Sound region in May, most of them in software engineering and product management roles, according to information it sent to Washington state employment officials.

Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood said on an April earnings call that the company was focused on “building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers with fewer managers.”

The company has repeatedly characterized its recent layoffs as part of a push to trim management layers, but the May focus on cutting software engineering jobs has fueled worries about how the company's own AI code-writing products could reduce the number of people needed for programming work.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said earlier this year that “maybe 20, 30% of the code” for some of Microsoft’s coding projects “are probably all written by software.”

The latest layoffs, however, seemed centered on slower-growing areas of the company's business, said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.

“They’re focused more and more on AI, cloud and next-generation Microsoft and really looking to cut costs around Xbox and some of the more legacy areas,” Ives said. “I think they overhired over the years. This is Nadella and team making sure that they’re keeping with efficiency and that’s the name of the game in Wall Street.”

The trimming of the Xbox staff follows Microsoft's years-long expansion of the business surrounding its gaming console, culminating in 2023 with the $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard — the California-based maker of hit franchises like Call of Duty and Candy Crush.

Before that, in a bid to compete with Sony’s PlayStation, it spent $7.5 billion to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Maryland-based video game publisher Bethesda Softworks.

Many of those game studios, which have locations across North America and Europe, were struggling with the layoffs Wednesday, according to social media posts from employees who announced they were looking for new jobs.

FILE - A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court is to rule on Monday in a case involving 10 people accused of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, allegations her daughter said damaged her health and family life.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 60, are accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron ’s wife was born a man and linking the 24-year age gap with her husband to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.

Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October.

Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.

Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered as having played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.

The X account of Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations.

Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted. They face up to two years in prison if convicted.

The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.

The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.

Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.

FILE - French President's wife Brigitte Macron arrives ahead of the ceremony outside "La Belle Equipe" bar, Thursday Nov. 13, 2025 in Paris as part of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of terrorist attacks. (Ludovic Marin, Pool photo via AP, File)